Reading Activists at the Guardian HQ

On Tuesday 29 October thirty Reading Activists from across the country congregated in London for a fantastic journalism training workshop with the Guardian. The newspaper's Elli Narewska replicated a day in the life of a reporter for the young people, complete with tight deadlines, harsh copy editors and tough editorial decisions.

Working in pairs, Reading Activists scanned the same newswires and websites used by the paper's reporters for the day's biggest stories. Having chosen their topics, which ranged from the NSA to polio outbreaks, the young reporters began writing their stories up and arranging them on their very own newspaper front page.

Chins were stroked, coffee was drunk (by the adults) and big phrases like "international espionage," "the five Ws of journalism" and "three new species found" were thrown about the room.

Next came copy checking, photo picking and, headline-writing. Finally, newspaper names were chosen, including; The Update, The Eye of Today and Kevin.

And then all of a sudden, the newspapers were ready. Each pair received three A3 copies of their very own newspaper - the perfect souvenir from a day's reporting at the Guardian's offices in London.